When the flames died, the spin began. Governor Orval Faubus tried to shift blame while reporters and investigators searched for answers. Deputy State Fire Marshal Bill Struebing examined the ashes, Dr. Howard A. Dishongh, Pulaski County coroner, signed the death certificates, and survivor Roy Davis kept telling the truth about what really happened. With commentary from Marlon Weems and historical insight from Dr. Brian Mitchell, Tracey Carrington and Steve Nawojczyk expose how the tragedy was buried under politics, payroll scandals, and racism. Jim Hawley and Keith Hulse, former New York City firefights, discuss the blaze. Letters from William Piggee, sermons by Rev. Roland Smith, and the collective defiance of the school’s staff reveal a community demanding justice for twenty-one lost boys and a state that refused to listen.

March 5, 1959—sixty-nine boys were locked inside a wooden dormitory as flames tore through the building. Twenty-one never made it out. Survivors Roy Davis, Archie Ray Poole, and Otis Sidney describe the terror of waking to smoke and locked exits, while fire investigators Jim Hawley and Keith Hulse, both retired New York City firefighters, explain how panic and bad design turned the dorm into a furnace. Superintendent Buddy Gaines, Governor Orval Faubus, and Captain W.A. Seaton of the Little Rock Fire Department appear through archival accounts as the episode reconstructs every minute of the blaze—from the first flicker in the caretaker’s office to the failed rescue attempts in the storm-soaked Arkansas night.

It began as a promise and it ended in betrayal. In 1936, Arkansas built the Negro Boys’ Industrial School in Wrightsville, calling it a place for “wayward youth.” What they created was a prison farm for children. In this first episode, Tracey Carrington and Steve Nawojczyk uncover how decades of racism, neglect, and forced labor turned a so-called reform school into a deathtrap. With historian Dr. Brian Mitchell exposing the state’s pattern of segregation, juvenile-justice expert Judge Steve Teske explaining how the system failed these kids, and journalist Marlon Weems recalling life in Little Rock’s shadow of Jim Crow, the picture becomes chillingly clear. Lawmakers warned of fire hazards. Inspectors documented locked doors. Editorials begged the state to act. But no one did — until twenty-one boys burned to death inside.

In the final part of our three-part series on Ruth Sumlin, The Coroner’s Report follows the case from the discovery of J.Y. “Shorty” Cooper’s mutilated body along a logging road, through Ruth’s shocking confessions, and into the courtroom battles that sealed her fate.

We trace how investigators, including retired Arkansas State Police investigator David Hendershott, pieced together evidence linking Ruth to the jailbreak, the shooting, and the gruesome aftermath. Courtroom testimony reveals contradictions, shifting stories, and Ruth’s willingness to sacrifice herself for Warren Sumlin — the man she claimed both controlled her and convinced her to “take the rap.”

The jury sentenced Ruth to life without parole, while Warren initially received the death penalty, later commuted to life. Both would spend the rest of their days behind bars. Yet even in prison, Ruth clung to Warren and her faith, singing gospel with the “Prodigal Daughters” prison quintet, writing a memoir that never saw publication, and repeatedly seeking clemency — all denied.

Today, at 70 years old, Ruth remains confined at the McPherson Unit in Newport, Arkansas. She has served nearly five decades, still insisting she will not die in prison. But the question lingers: was she a cold-blooded killer, or a young woman manipulated into a life sentence by a man she couldn’t let go? What do you think?

In Part Two of Ruth Sumlin-For the Love of a Good Woman, The Coroner’s Report presents a story that turns darker and more violent. What began as whispered plans between husband and wife explodes on Thanksgiving night, 1977. Before Ruth can even step inside the Columbia County jail, she lures Shorty Cooper into the woods—where liquor, sex, and violence end in his brutal murder and mutilation.

With Shorty’s car, 22 year old Ruth then storms the jail armed with a pistol and knife, forcing jailer Tim Rainwater to release five inmates, including her husband, Warren Sumlin. The chaos that follows is almost cinematic: desperate escapes, botched getaways, gunfire in the Arkansas woods, and terrified civilians caught in the crossfire.

Told through original police testimony, investigator David Hendershott’s vivid recollections, and Ruth’s own shocking letters, Part Two captures the frantic hours of a jailbreak that left the state reeling.

In this first installment of Ruth Sumlin-For the Love of a Good Woman, The Coroner’s Report uncovers the beginnings of one of Arkansas’s strangest true crimes. Before the gunfire and the castration, there was Ruth Brewer—a bright college student from small southern town with a promising future. That future began to unravel the night she met Warren Sumlin, a 44-year-old career criminal with a violent past and a plan to never see the inside of a prison again.

Part One traces Ruth’s journey from “good girl” to accomplice, as Warren pulls her deeper into his world of manipulation, drugs, and violence. Listeners will hear from retired State Police investigator David Hendershott, original inmate witnesses, and even Ruth herself as the seeds of a Thanksgiving night jailbreak are planted.

It’s a story of love, control, and betrayal in small-town Arkansas—setting the stage for the chaos and bloodshed that would follow.

Join former coroner and Arkansas State Crime Lab Director Steve Nawojczyk and his partner, Tracey Carrington as they wrap up their dive into serial killing, black widow, Nannie Doss. With original records and an interview with one of Nannie's living descendants, we learn the true story of what happened. In Episode 6 Part 4 of The Coroner's Report Podcast, we learn the fate of Nannie and how she lived out the rest of her life. Luckily, there were no more dead bodies found, but Nannie never stopped putting on a show. Afterall, she was one of America's most prolific serial killers.

Join former coroner and Arkansas State Crime Lab Director Steve Nawojczyk and his partner, Tracey Carrington as they dive back into the story of Nannie Doss who killed four of her five husbands and countless family members. Yet, her story was almost lost to time. With original records and an interview with one of Nannie's living descendants, we learn the true story of what happened. But, that body count? Well, sometimes secrets like that just go to the grave. In Episode 6 Part 3 of The Coroner's Report Podcast, we continue to count up the bodies that Nannie Doss stacked up. Following her case through a sanity hearing. No one could decide if Nannie was crazy like a fox, or crazy like a bedbug. Throughout it all, front and center, was Nannie Doss...one of America's most prolific serial killers.